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Jan 9, 2012

Weapons & Warriors: The Tecpatl of the Aztec

When you hear about Aztecs, some people often think about human sacrifice. Nobody knows how many sacrifices the Aztecs made a year. There is some speculation, and some accuse Cortés of greatly exaggerating the stories about the human sacrifices. Some other explorers and conquistadors that encountered the Aztec people made no mention in their notes and books of human sacrifice. Archaeologists however have uncovered many things in the ruins that would support the belief that the Aztecs sacrificed humans.

The Jaguar and Eagle Warriors were a major component to this ritual. They did not perform the ritual, but they were the ones who supplied the victims. The tool that was used to cut the heart out of the sacrifice was called the Tecpatl. It is about seven to nine inches in length. The handle is usually carved stone or wood and the blade was a double edged piece of obsidian. This volcanic produced glass is not only very hard, it can be sharper than steel. The Aztecs collected tons of obsidian for making their weapons. The Tecpatl may have been extremely sharp, but obsidian was more susceptible to dulling or cracking after striking something.The Tecpatl was a tool used to carve a hole in the abdomen so that a priest could reach his hand up into the body and rip out the heart. Jaguar and Eagle Knights did not use a Tecpatl when they attacked settlements to gather sacrifices or faced enemies on the battlefield. For warfare, the Knights had much deadlier and better ranged weapons, but this tool was very useful when there was not room to wield larger weapons or if their other weapons were broken.

This was a short version of Weapons Weekly, but aside from the human sacrifice perspective the Tecpatl is a pretty simple weapon with not a lot of documented history in combat. Keep in mind that obsidian can be sharpened to a point so thin, it would be ten times sharper than a steel razor blade. That makes it a very dangerous knife.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Weapons and Warriors, click here to view the entire catalog of weapons and cultures. Thank you, see you next week.

Hello! I've been away from blogging for quite a long time, but you are absolutely correct. I cannot tell you I ended up writing Cortez because it's not spelled that way anywhere in history. Thank you for pointing that out. I will make that correction as soon as I can.

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